Roller train device



Aug. 11, 1959 R. R. RICHTER 1 2,893,855

ROLLER TRAIN DEVICE FiledApril 2O,v 1955- r 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. v RAYMONQ'RICHTER.

ATTORNEY Aufg- 1959 R. R. RICHTER I 2,898,855

ROLLER TRAIN DEVICE Filed April 20,1955 2' Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR. RAYMOND RICHT ER ATTORNEY .=-ro1.1. r proyide'this color separation by .means ofa color separa- -'t .s ch.as .that o h in ppl s nts tsntNo. 2.6 1.-

ROLLER TRAIN DEVICE Raymond R. Richter, Milwaukee, 'Wis., assignor to The Dayton Rubber Company, a corporation 0t Ohio Application April 20, 1955, Serial No. 502,658

3 Claims. (Cl. 101-425) 655, filed November 17, .195 3, now Patent No. 2,786,413.

.-.'In the art of coating machines and particularly in the art of printing wherein-ink is transmitted from a source .such as a fountain toa printing form, a thorough and even .distributionof-the'ink or other coating medium requires .that .a plurality of rollers in tangential contact be employed. Particularly where printing is to be done in half-tones or Where large-areas of ink or coating material are to'be deposited, the necessity for a thorough and even distribution of the inks oftendemands that in excess of tenorfifteenspreading and distributing rollersbe employed. .During the process .of printing on such machines, it of course follows thateach of these many rollers be- .comes thoroughly coated with a layer ofthe ink.

'When it is desired to discontinue the printing operation .orto change ink .consistenciesor colors it therefore becomesnecessary to remove this ink or coating material from each of the many rollers. This operationis-neces- .sary when the printing operation is shut down in order to prevent the ink from drying upon the roller surface thereby imparting. undesirable 1 irregularities :thereto and causing the hardened ink to interfere with the smooth opera- .tion of the press.

In-the past, it was. the practice when such ink removal -was necessary,lto remove each of the many rollers individuallyfrom-the press and wipe it clean with a rag or .brush. When it is considered that these rollers on larger presses are often over four or five feet in length, of considerably large diameter and accordingly of relatively largevveight, it .can be seen that this cleaning of the press following the shutdown thereof or upon thechanging of inksthereon represented a considerable expense in time and labor.

In the artofprinting, it is also often desirable that more than-one color be applied to the paper or other material receiving the printed impression at the same time.

Since the various colors, if allowed to merge, would resuit in an entirely different and usually completely unsatisfactory blend of colors, it is necessary that the individual colors being applied at any given time be kept completely separate and distinct. When such color separation was formerly desired, it was the practice to cut or groove the coating rollers such that a gap would be provided in the roller surface over which :the diiferentcolors could not pass, it being necessary to provide such a groove ,on .each side :ofagband .ofink of a given color to. -be carried by the More rrecfin lm-it has been found expedient .to

tates f am 325, dated June 24, 1952. While this color separator has worked satisfactorily, a certain amount of inconvenience has been involved in the positioning of a color separator at the proper spaces for separating the desired number and width colors and the repositioning of these devices when a different range or width of color application was desired.

As explained in the above-mentioned co -pending application, Serial No. 392,655 filed November 17, 1953,--it has been found in connection with a device for removing the ink from the printing rolls or for washing up the press, as it is called in the trade, that a hard but flexible multi-edged unit provides certain unique advantages with regard to convenience of use and certain unobvious improvements with regard to the thoroughness of the washing up.

Applicant has now discovered that by employing a special construction of a multiple scraping edged 'WaSh-llp attachment wherein the individual edges are individually adjustable relative to a locally provided drawing off roller or one of the rollers in the'printing or coating roller train, not only may the improvements of the aforementioned Wash-up device be available, but also the same device may be used as a color separator or-for controlling the amount of ink flowing to the printing form, all Many one of these operations to be performed simply by making minor adjustments on the basic combination unit without ever removing or repositioning the same. i

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a combinationroliercleaning and coating material separating device which rnay be conveniently employed as a printing press wash-up and color separator attachment.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an attachment whichis capableof performing its various functions including'the control of inkflowing to the printing form or impression plate Without the necessity tor making major changes in the apparatus or its position upon the printing press.

It is a further object of the present inventionto provide such a combination wash-up, color separatorfand ink control apparatus which may be readily adjusted in a manner which renders the exact degree of adjustment capable of .such broadtoler'ances that minor "variations in these adjustments will not'affectthe perfection of its performance.

To achieve these and other objects and advantages of the present-invention to be apparent from a reading of the following disclosure, it is' contemplated that a hardsurfaced rotatably mounted cylinder, either a partof the regular printing press train of rollers or a locally provided ldrawing ofl. roller directly associated with the multiple attachment, be so positioned that this hard-surfaced roller will operate in tangential contact With at least one of, the coating rollers. Spaced from this hard-surfaced cylinder and aligned parallel to the longitudinal axis. thereof is placed a mounting member from which projects individual scraping edges which are also parallel to the'longitudinal axis of the cylinder. Along with means for individuallyiadjusting the spacing of each of these edges with relation to the hard-surfaced cylinder are gang adjustment means for simultaneously changing the spacing of all said edges relative to the cylinder. Where, as in a prevferred form of the present invention, the individual scraping .edgestare provided by flexible blade members of relatively .short length as-compared to the overall length of the rollers to be cleaned, it can be seen that,notwithstand- ,ing the :fact thatsome of theedges might be closerlto the hard-surface cylinder than others, suflicient force maybe these blades, in view of their closely spaced relationship axially of the cylinder, are capable of removing all of the ink or coating material therefrom, particularly where at some place in the printing press or coating apparatus roller train there is at least one roller which vibrates or oscillates axially. The cohesiveness of the ink or other coating material is such that if this material is removed from the roller train at any point thereof, this removal will continue until all of the ink or coating material has been removed from all of the rollers in tangentially contacting sequence with that roller from which the removal is taken. Consequently, when all of the blades are thus urged against one cylinder in the train, in only a relatively short time and without the necessity of removing the individual rolls, the entire roller chain may be cleaned of ink or other coating material.

Where on the other hand the individual blades are adjusted so that certain of the edges are closer to the hardsurfaced cylinder than others, the gang adjustment means may be so actuated as to bring only those blades which are closer to the cylinder into contact therewith such that areas of this cylinder will be scraped clean of ink or other coating material whereas this material will be allowed to flow freely upon the areas therebetween. It is this particular arrangement of blades which enables the combination device to serve as a color separator, the blades being so individually adjusted that at points where it is desired to separate colors, the blades will be in contact with the cylinder whereas those areas where the ink is to be transmitted will be unscraped by any blade member. Because of the resilient and flexible nature of the blades employed in one preferred embodiment of this invention, the gang adjustment means may be operated to force all of the blades in the contact with the hard-surfaced cylinder to provide the desired washing up without the necessity for readjusting the individual blade members. Once the washing up has been completed, it is then a simple operation to again adjust the gang adjustment means to return the blades to their color separating position.

For a further detailed description of the invention thus generally described, reference may be had to the following description of one preferred embodiment thereof in connection with which reference may be had to the appended drawings.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of a typical train of rollers or printing presses showing the manner in which the device of the present invention is applied thereto.

Figure 2 is a view in perspective of the device of this invention.

Figure 3 is a cross section through the blade mounting bar and a blade suitable for incorporation in the device of the present invention as it appears when individually adjusted to assume one position.

Figure 4 is a similar cross section through the blade and mounting member of Figure 3 showing the blade in its alternately adjusted position.

Figure 5 is a perspective of the mounting member and scraping elements of the device of this invention.

F1gure 6 is an enlarged elevation of the ratchet lockmg mechanism of the mounting bar showing the manner in which the same may be employed to adjust simultaneousl y the position of the blades relative to the riding roller.

Figure 7 is a perspective of the local roller and scraping edges of the device of the present invention with the blades positioned for color separating action.

F1gure 8 is a similar perspective of the local roller and scraping elements of the present invention with the scrapmg elements positioned for the washing up operation.

Referring now to Figure 1 there is a schematic showing of a typical ink transferring train of rollers as might be found on a conventional rotary press. The ink or other material to be supplied to the printing form is contained in the fountain or reservoir 11 and is removed therefrom by the fountain roller 12. From this fountain roller the ink is transferred by the ductor roller 13 to the steel drum or cylinder 14 which may or may not be in oscillatory motion axially thereof. It will be noted that the ductor roller 13 is spaced from this cylinder 14 so that when the ductor roller is delivering ink to the drum 14, it is spaced from the fountain roller 12 thereby affording a means of controlling the amount of ink flowing from the fountain on to the roller chain beginning with the vibrator or drum 14. From the steel drum 14, the ink is transmitted by virtue of its cohesiveness and the tangential contacts established throughout the sequentially positioned rollers to the steel drum 15 which may also be in oscillatory vibration axially thereof and upon which the ink will be further distributed by the rubber covered distributor rollers 16, '16a,16b, 160. A third steel drum 17 may be provided for finally distributing inks to the form rollers 18a and 18b which apply the ink directly to the raised impressions or other printing forms carried by the plate cylinder 19. In the actual printing operation the web of paper or other material to receive the printed impression passes between the bight of the plate cylinder 19 and the impression cylinder 20 which is usually a hard-surfaced roller and operates to force this web against the inked impression mounted upon the plate cylinder.

It will be observed that all of the ink transfer rollers are so positioned that they may be driven by tangential contact with other rollers in the train. Those skilled in the art will also realize that in the case of flat bed presses, even though such tangential contact is not effected by all of the rollers, they will be driven by a common medium such as a reciprocating form bed with which each of the nontangentially contacting groups of rollers will come in contact.

The combination attachment of the present invention is designated generally at 21 in Figure 1 wherein the trough 22 and scraping member 23 are shown to act against a local rider or drawing olf roller 24 which is pref erably of a hard-surfaced material such as chromed steel. While it is usually desirable that such a local rider roller 24 be provided as part of the attachment of this invention, it is conceivable as often happens that the trough and scraping member may be applied to act against a roller already in the ink transfer roller train. It most often develops, however, that a hard-surfaced roller suitable for removing the inks from the rollers is not readily accessible such that the hard-surfaced roller supplied with the attachment as in the case of Figure l is preferred.

Referring now to Figure 2, there is shown in greater detail the wash-up color separating attachment of the present invention as shown generally at 21 in Figure l. The chromed steel rider roller 25 is shown to be rotatably mounted upon the bracket member 26 which has a companion member 26a capable of forming a clamp with the member 26 to secure the attachment to a slotted shaft 27 which may be inserted in many presses as the replacement for one of the roller shafts normally employed therein. The clamping effect and the position of the device relative to this shaft 27 may be controlled by loosening the set screws 28 and turning the device until it is properly located and thereupon tightening the set screws to re-establish the clamping engagement.

The bracket member 26 is also grooved or slotted as at 29 to provide for the insertion of a mounting bar 30 upon which individual blades of relatively short length as compared with the rider roller and the rollers of the press upon which the device will be used may be mounted. As shown in Figures 3 and 4, the mounting bar 30 is preferably square in cross section so as to provide a flat-surfaced base 30a for the individual blades 31. This bar, having the rounded shaft ends is freely rotatable in the slot 29 of the bracket member 26, and to control its rotatative position, the mechanism best illustrated in Figures 5 and 6 is provided. To one end of the mounting bar 30 having shaft extension 32 is positioned a handle 3? integral with or at least immovable relative to this mounting member. Also at one. end of and immovably associated with the mounting member is provided a ratchet wheel 34 preferably near or immediately adjacent to. the handle. The individual blade members 31 are, of course, mounted to the mounting bar 30 and are, or may be held in the desired position against the same by suitably positioned holes in the base of the blades. to register with the mounting pins; such as 3811 and the blades may be further'held and/or adjusted by screws 38 extending into. the mounting bar 30. One preferred method for utilizing this form of mounting for separately varying the angle of inclination of the individual blades. away from the mounting bar 30 will be discussedmore fully in connection with Figures 3 and 4.

Referring now to Figures 3 and 4, the manner in which the above-described blade mounting arrangement may be utilized to alter the angle at which the individual blade projects from the. mounting bar or to vary individually the spacing between the. scraping edges of these blades relative to. the riding or drawing ofi roller 25, it will be seen. that the mounting bar 30. is provided withv at. least one flat surface 3011 against which the blade base may be pressed by theshoe 37. This shoe 3.7' is of course actuated toward the mounting bar by suitable means such as the screw 38 which may threadably engage a bore through the mounting bar 30 or as in the case of the illustration of Figures 3 and 4 may be threaded through a bore in the shoe 37 and held within a bore through the mounting bar 30 by means of a cotter pin 39. In either case, as the screw 38 is turned, the shoe 37 will be forced toward the direction of the mounting bar 30 thereby .sandwiching the base of the blade 31. Where, as in the case in the preferred embodiment shown, the blade member itself is composed of a resilient steel, and has an arcuate base portion, the flattening of this arcuate portion against the flat surface 30a will cause the blade to straighten up and move rearwardly of its normally relaxed arcuate position. The position to which the blade moves when the shoe 37 is tightly urging it against the mounting bar is shown in Figure 4. Comparison of the blade position in Figures 3 and 4 illustrates the manner in which each of the individual scraping blades may be separately regulated with regard to its spacing from the drawing off cylinder 25.

In addition to this individual blade adjustment means, means are also provided for adjusting all of the scraping members simultaneously relative to the drawing off cylinder 25. This means is best shown in Figure 6 wherein the mounting bracket 26 and companion piece 26a are aflixed about the shaft 27 to hold the device of this invention. As in Figure 5, the round end shaft 32 of the mounting bar 30 has a ratchet wheel 34 integrally fixed thereon and a handle 33 similarly integrated therewith. lPivotally mounted to the bracket member 26 which contains a groove or other receiving means for the mounting bar 30 is a pawl 35 having a handle 36 which may be pivoted so that the pawl will engage the teeth of the :ratchet wheel. It will be noted that the teeth of the :ratchet wheel 34 are so inclined that they will form a locking engagement with the pawl when there is a tendency for the ratchet wheel to be rotated in a counterclockwise direction. Considering now the position of the resilient blades 31 and the fact that they are to be urged against a drawing off cylinder such that a counterclockwise force will be exerted on the mounting member by the resilient nature of the blades in their endeavor to return to their unstressed position, it can be seen that the blades themselves because of their resilient nature provide the actuating means for locking themselves in position. This same locking will be efiected whether one or all of the blades are urged into contact with the drawing off roller 25 so that the mounting bar may be locked in any desired position so long as at least one blade is in contact with the drawing off roller. Thus, the device will be operative even though only one blade is utilized to perform the most basic color separation on the train of printing rollers.

In; Figures 7 and 8 there is schematically shown the difierent arrangements of blades 45 suitable for performing the various desired operations of the combination device of invention. In Figure 7, there is shown such an arrangement suitable for providing a separation of various colored inks on a single printing machine. To eifect such a color separation throughout the entire train of printing rollers, it has been found that a clear and definite color. separation at the local rider or drawing oli roller 41 will suflice. Thus, if the ink reservoir or fountain is. properly divided to supply three spaced bands of color 47,, 47a and 47b, the division of these colors on the train of printing rollers may be maintained by adjusting the blades 450 between the bands of color so thatthey willbe in scraping contact with the roller 41. At the same time those blades 45b opposite the portions of the roller whereon it is desired to preserve the ink, will be individually adjusted so that they will be spaced from scraping contact with the roller 41. Since the blades 45 are individually adjustable, it canbe appreciated that regardless of the number or individual Widths of color bands desired on the roller, the individual blade arrangement may be easily changed to maintain such number and width. Thus, for example, if {it were desired to make a continuous wide band of color to include the space occupied by the bands 47a and 47b and the separating space 40 therebetween, it would be necessary only to individually adjust the blades 450 so that their scraping edges would be backed away from the roller 41.

Where it is desired to clean the ink or coating material from the rollers and printing forms in the operation commonly referred to as washing up, the blades 45 may be positioned as shown in Figure 8, all the same being in scraping contact with the roller 41. In this position, the blades are in scraping contact with the roller throughout its entire length except for the nominal spacing between each of the blades. It will be understood that the spacing between the individual blades 45 is such that the amount of ink remaining untouched between such spaces will be insignificant. On the other hand, where there is some place in the roller train an axially vibrating drum or roller such as 13, 15 or 17 of Figure 1, it can be appreciated that this oscillation of the rollers will cause the ink to be so shifted, that none of the same will be permitted to remain between the spacing of the individual blades thereby to avoid the scraping action thereof.

Where it is desired merely to control the amount of ink being fed through the roller train to the form or impression plates, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate the fact that an arrangement of blades not unlike that shown in Figure 7 for color separation may be employed,

the amount of ink getting to the roller train being dependent upon the amount allowed to remain upon the drawing off or rider roller 41 which is itself controlled by the number of blades in contact therewith. Thus, where a printing form involving areas not to be inked is employed, the blades such as 45c may be adjusted to scrape clean the portion 40 of the local roller, the portion 40 being positioned so that it corresponds with the lateral location of that portion of the form where no ink is required.

While the present invention has been described in considerable detail in connection with the preferred embodiments set forth above, it is to be understood that the particularization herein is for the purpose of illustration only and does not limit the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims:

I claim:

1. A roller wash-up device for use on a train of rollers comprising a hard-surfaced drawing ofi cylinder in tangential contact with at least one of said rollers, a rotatably mounted blade bar in spaced, parallel relation to said cylinder, individual blades of relatively short length mounted in closely spaced relation axially of said bar and projecting therefrom, means for controlling the rotative position of said bar to simultaneously influence the relation of all of said blades to said cylinder, and individual adjustable means on each blade comprising a member adjacent said blade and a fastening device passing through said member and said blade into said bar, said member being capable of movement toward and away from said bar to vary the angle of said blade relative to said bar.

2. A device according to claim 1 wherein said individual blades are of relatively short length as compared with the hard-surfaced roller and are composed of a hard, flexible, resilient material whereby all of said individual blades may be forced into contact with said hard-surfaced roller such that some of said blades will bear against said roller with greater force than will others thereof.

3. A combination printing press wash-up, color separator and ink-flow-control device comprising a rotatably mounted hard-surfaced cylinder in tangential contact with and driven by the ink transfer members of said printing press, a rotatably mounted blade bar in spaced parallel relation to said roller, individual flexible, resilient blades mounted along and projecting from said bar, means for regulating the angle of projection of at least one of said blades from said bar, a ratchet wheel aifixcd to said bar and a pawl pivotallymounted to be intermittently engaged and disengaged from said wheel whereby said bar may be rotated until at least one of said blades is resiliently urged against said hard-surfaced cylinder and the pawl may be made to engage the wheel so that the bar is held against rotation away from the cylinder by the pawl and against rotation toward the cylinder by the resilience of the blade in contact therewith, but wherein this resilience may be overcome if it is desired to rotate the bar toward the cylinder until all of said blades are in contact therewith.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 984,913 Hayes Feb. 21, 1911 1,275,348 Wood Aug. 13, 1918 2,062,154 Welk Nov. 24, 1936 2,078,635 Krahmer Apr. 27, 1937 2,161,943 Baue June 13, 1939 2,601,325 Richter June 24, 1952 

